Ford’s ECOnetic Fiesta Gets 65 MPG. You Can’t Have One.

The ECOnetic Fiesta that Ford sells in Europe is a sporty little five-passenger hatchback that gets 65 mpg and emits less CO2 than a Toyota Prius. It is the greenest family car sold in Britain and just the thing to boost Ford’s sales – and image – at home. But Ford has no plans to bring it to America for one simple, stupid, reason.

It’s a diesel.

The Fiesta sports a 1.6-liter turbocharged engine with direct injection. It produces just 88 horsepower, so acceleration is, shall we say, relaxed, but European customers don’t seem to mind. They’ve snapped up more than 42,000 of them since the car’s debut last fall.

But we can only look on with envy.

Diesels are huge in Europe, where they comprise about half of all cars sold. They’re slowly catching on in America as European automakers like Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz bring them here and the IRS offers tax credits to make them more attractive. Even Japanese automakers plan to roll them out in America. But the Big Three – which make and sell diesels in Europe – have shown little interest in offering them here because they don’t think it’s economically viable. They don’t see people buying them, so they can’t see making money on them.

"We don’t have a full scale energy policy in place in the U.S. that promotes the usage of diesel fuel," Ford spokesman Said Deep told Wired.com. "So, we will bring the Fiesta to America in the most affordable manner."

The US-bound Fiesta will arrive in 2010 with a 1.6-liter four-cylinder gas-burning engine with fuel economy in the high 30s. Nice, but less than half what the diesel gets. It’s hard to stomach considering the ECOnetic has exploded on the EU market like a pinata full of pesos. Aside from the stellar sales figures, the car – which starts at less than $13,000 – has been lauded with awards from the likes of What Car? and CleanGreenCar.com. The Sunpredicts it will be Britain’s best-selling car this year.

J.D. Power and Associates predict that diesel sales will account for as much as 14 percent of the
U.S. auto market by 2017. European automakers Mercedes-Benz and VW are leading the way with cars like the E320 Bluetec and the Jetta TDI, which was named Green Car of the Year by Green Car Journal. BMW may bring a diesel Mini to America in 2010. It helps that this new generation of clean diesel cars is eligible for a federal tax credit of $900 to $1,800.

Yet most Americans still associate diesels with 18-wheelers and buses, and taxes can make diesel as much as a dollar more a gallon than gasoline. Detroit is also committed to electric vehicles partly because American consumers don’t find diesel as sexy as hybrid or electric vehicle technology, even if diesels can deliver the same fuel economy at much lower cost.

"We have to change the perception of diesel in America and make sure it is not left out," said Jeffrey Breneman, Executive Director of the U.S.
Coalition for Advanced Diesel Cars. "It’s here today, not tomorrow."